Art historian and author Eileen Chanin brings to life the lives and creative work of four remarkable women, Dora Ohlfsen, Louise Hanson-Dyer, Alleyne Clarice Zander and Mary Cecil Allen. All were expatriate pioneers in the international arts world of the inter-war period. Chanin draws on the research for a book she and fellow art historian and author Steven Miller undertook in their joint 2006 Creative Fellowship at the Library.
From their bases in Rome (Dora Ohlfsen), Paris (Louise Hanson-Dyer), London (Alleyne Clarice Zander) and New York (Mary Cecil Allen), the four women pioneered the arts and became models of individual achievement and resourcefulness. Chanin discusses some of the themes that connected their lives, such as the notions of expatriation and being Australian; sacrifice - in war, by women and for art; and changes for women, such as the 'New Woman', emancipation and independence.
Chanin also describes how the State Library of Victoria was central to creative life in Melbourne during the inter-war years. At the time cultural life radiated from the Library: artists pored over books and periodicals in the library, observed exhibitions and attended lectures there. Clarice Zander and Mary Cecil Allen both wrote that the collections of the Library were crucial to their development. Allen drew record crowds to the series of lectures she presented here. Louise Hanson-Dyer presented the library with a rich collection of music and arranged the first concert held there.
This lecture was held at the State Library of Victoria on 13 September 2007 as part of the Fellows' Lecture Series.
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Eileen Chanin is the Director of Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, and Steven Miller is Archivist at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. They are the co-authors of Degenerates and Perverts: The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art (Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing), which won the NSW Australian History Prize 2005.
Where possible, a transcript or speaker's notes can be provided upon request.
Eileen Chanin, with Steven Miller, was a 2006 State Library of Victoria Creative Fellow
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